It's what I do. It served me well in the scholastic setting. Its benefits are questionable in real life. If it gets on your nerves, you're not alone. Most of the time it gets on my nerves too. But I'm stuck with me, so I decided to exercise some of it here.

10/6/12

Evie, at twelve months old you give long, tight hugs and wide open mouth kisses. You love rough housing with your brother, but you have an adorable, feminine affect that brings a welcomed balance to our household. You walk with a baby-lady demi-waddle, and you have turned out to be quite a climber. You certainly keep us on our toes.

You love to get up and go somewhere in the morning. If you think someone is going somewhere without you, you are not at all happy about it. You take one nap a day and wake up about once a night, take a bottle, and go back to sleep. You were sick off and on your eleventh month, thanks to all of the back to school germs and your busy social schedule.

You love to chatter and you like to practice your sounds, especially when you hear me helping Spencer with his sounds. You love to "sing" with us and dance along to the music. You gracefully move your hips and shoulders side to side. It's one of the cutest things I've ever seen. The people at library story time think it's pretty precious too. You can also throw a pretty respectable temper tantrum when the situation calls for it. It's the only time you look anything like your mother.

You love for me to brush your teeth. You used to cry and cry while I brushed his teeth, and I finally realized you had gotten teeth months ago and that I should probably get you a toothbrush of your own. Two of your top teeth have come in, but they are not the front ones (they're the lateral incisors). Dr. Martin told me she can see your two front middle teeth (central incisors) working their way in, so I've stopped worrying that you might not have them. Ha! You also love to play in the toilet. You were dunking two different passies in it today. Ugh. So gross. I'm so sorry I continue to let you do that.

You have started doing this precious new little social gesture. When you see someone you are excited to see, you duck your head down about 3/4 of the way while standing still and then you quickly walk towards that person while holding your head down and holding your arms down to your side. You have this earnest little almost-frown on your face when you do it. It's like you're showing obeisance to the person. Once you get to them you expect to be picked up and hugged and greeted. You did it for the first time when your aunt Hillary came home for a family wedding and your birthday party. You've done it a few times since then. I hope I never forget how precious and unique you are at this age.

You pant like a dog when you hear one or see one. You were looking at the penguins on your jammies tonight and started panting at me and saying "daw, daw, daw, daw." I tried to tell you they are penguins, but you would hear nothing of the sort. You have been going to bed a little bit better this month (excluding the days you have a yucky cold), so I'm hopeful that you're getting into a night time acceptance pattern. Hope springs eternal.

You're still an amazing screamer. And you have been eating better, both milk and solids (again, when you're not unspeakably congested). You love baths. You hear us start running the water, and you race to the bathroom and start fussing and trying to climb in. You've still yet to give yourself a bottle, but you're happy to scarf down some pizza, avocado, or cracker. You say "mamamama" when you want something, although you know it's my name too. And, I think you're calling Spencer "sssssss," but I'm not sure. If anything, you enjoy making that sound.

At twelve months you weighed 19 lbs. 6 oz. (22nd percentile), were 28.8" tall (40th percentile) and had a head circumference of 17.75" (50th percentile).